On 30 October 1938, as a Halloween special, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre broadcast an adaptation of HG Wells classic novel War Of The Worlds. Adapted and scripted by Howard Koch, with considerable input from Orson Welles and members of the Mercury Theatre, the setting for the radio broadcast switched from the Victorian England of the novel to the then present day New Jersey. The resulting broadcast caused untold panic among the public, with hundreds descending upon Grover’s Mill, where the Martian spaceships had supposedly landed, to witness man’s first contact with alien visitors. Here is the entire broadcast that caused the panic. The broadcast is celebrating its 70th anniversary at the end of this month - interest is sure to be high.

1. War of the Worlds -Original radio broadcast; 30 October 1938